Adobe's Scott Belsky on the 'Creative Professional' Evolution

By
Dan CostaJune 15, 2018, 4 p.m.

For Adobe Chief Product Officer Scott Belsky, XD, the company's new interface design suite, is just the latest step in a career spent 'organizing the creative world.'

Today, Scott Belsky is Adobe's Chief Product Officer, but he started out in finance before founding Behance, an online community for creative professionals acquired by Adobe in 2012, and launching the 99U conference. He recently stopped by PCMag Labs to discuss trends in digital design and why Adobe chose to make XD, its new interface design suite, available for free.

"The term creative professional is going to be a weird term in the future," Belsky says. "What company doesn't say that design and creativity isn't important to them?" As Belsky sees it, labor is increasingly becoming commoditized and automated. AI is going to do everything for us.

"Everyone needs to be outfitted to be a creative," Belsky says, and Adobe XD is going to be a part of that toolset. "I think this will be as big if not bigger than Photoshop. Experience design will involve spatial computing, augmented reality, and even voice interfaces."

Creating those new interfaces will challenge what it means to be a designer, particularly when it comes to setting the defaults that consumers may never actually see. "When you tell Google that you want something, you get a lot of options. You have ads at the top, but you still have visual discovery."

This will be very different in the voice-driven world of Google Home and Amazon Echo. "In a voice interface and you say you want to buy batteries. You have no idea what is happening under the hood. You don't know if you are going to get Duracells or Energizers. It is kind of scary. There is a battle to be the default in these new mediums."

Belsky says these default-questions will plague the next generation of AR designers as well. "There is only a certain amount of real estate around you," Belsky says. "Physical discovery is limited, just like voice."

Ultimately, the question is a philosophical one. "What is the responsibility of the designer to preserve a consumer choice?"

Check out our full interview with Belsky in the video above. For more Fast Forward with Dan Costa, subscribe to the podcast. On iOS, download Apple's Podcasts app, search for "Fast Forward" and subscribe. On Android, download the Stitcher Radio for Podcasts app via Google Play.

About the Author

Dan Costa is the Editor-in-Chief of PCMag.com and the Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff-Davis. He oversees the editorial operations for PCMag.com, Geek.com, ExtremeTech.com as well as PCMag's network of blogs, including AppScout and SecurityWatch. Dan makes frequent appearances on local, national, and international news programs, including CNN, MSNBC, FOX, ABC, and NBC where he shares his perspective on a variety of technology trends.

Dan began working at PC Magazine in 2005 as a senior editor, covering consumer electronics, blogging on Gearlog.com, and serving as the host of the weekly Gearlog Radio podcast. Prior to arriving at PCMag, Dan was Editor of the CNET Fortune ... See Full Bio